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Originally Posted by masaegu
I find it very ironical that an outright supporter of romatized Japanese as yourself is even discussing "correct spelling".
ヤッパその程度なんだよな～。マジウケ。
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I don't think I've ever said I was an 'outright' supporter of romaji. I think in the few discussions that have cropped up I have supported its use for beginners, and I stand by my belief that it's good for some types of learners to begin in romaji and work their way up into kana and then kanji.
Insofar as the topic . . . spelling is extremely important in English, more so than in Japanese. In Japanese words are spelled phoenetically in the kana, and it's extremely difficult to 'mispell' a kanji. The very placement of an apostrophe can give the phrase "sisters friends" multiple meanings, and a typo of a simple word can change the entire meaning of a sentence. I argue - in English - native speakers will always trump over non-natives, because they are
more likely to be aware of these important little differences. A non-native speaker may be just as good as a native, better, but if I was paying for a lesson I would prefer a native speaker, I think many would.
Also, I can't read what you wrote in Japanese. I don't recognise those two kanji yet, and although I can read kana I'm still not at any level to decipher what you said in terms of vocab.
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Originally Posted by jcj
you miss the point. I am talking about starting young. I am not against native teachers teaching in schools but school age is too late for difficult phonemes. School aged kids will not get them from native or non-native conversation in any case. See Dr. janet Werker
they will get them young, and that is when the non-native teachers come in. many of the teachers teaching very young kids, in small happy groups, are non-native and they, at this age, are key.
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In retrospect you perhaps have a point. My reasoning would probably be a little different, but with young children a non-native speaker would be most helpful, although I would personally say it depends on whether that teacher has the same primary language as the students. To learn the basics it would probably be easier for young students to learn from a teacher who can speak the same language as themselves, but I still think a native speaker is key, simply because they can spot errors or correct mistakes that the non-native might miss, and at such an early age accuracy is vital. It may be easy to learn a language, but it's very difficult to correct a mistake later on that's been taught and learned in one so young.